Hey Medic

About

Hey Medic refers to a series of memes in which various Team Fortress 2 classes ask Medic about various artists, games, films and pop culture phenomena, with Medic usually proceeding to disparage them and mock their titles. The trend originated from a dubbed Reddit meme in September 2019 and gained significant popularity online in January 2020.

Origin

On July 11th, 2019, Redditor^[1] namenotrick made a comment expressing their dislike for the K-Pop industry and accusing it of using predatory practices in /r/tf2shitposterclub subreddit, with the comment, gaining 130 upvotes. On July 19th, 2019, Redditor^[2] dabsallovar posted a four-panel meme depicting a humorous exchange between Team Fortress 2 classes Medic and Scout based on the comment (shown below). The post received over 2,700 upvotes in six months. One of the panels of the meme utilized an /r/arabfunny-style^[12] edit of Scout's face. The edit was a part of previously existing /r/tf2shitposting^[3] trend of four-panel ironic memes based on exchanges between various Team Fortress 2 characters.

On September 17th, 2019, Twitter^[4] user @little_paisano posted a dubbed version of the meme, with the video receiving over 31,500 views and the tweet receiving over 1,400 retweets and 3,900 likes (shown below).

Nighttime image dubbing adventures pic.twitter.com/gfLs3ofMWY

— Saltine (@little_paisano) September 17, 2019

- Hey Medic, I like K-pop!
- K-pop? More like K-poop!
- We joke, but K-pop is an extremely disgusting industry. It exploits artists even more so than American music industries. I remember watching a documentary about the contracts they make people follow, and how they have camps for like 8 year olds to see who they can manipulate into being a star. And the music itself is pretty much brainwashing people into being happy with their mundane, shitty lives. Fuck K-pop, and fuck the keebs who worship it.

Spread

In the following weeks, @little_paisano's dub was widely circulated online with reposts on Instagram, iFunny and YouTube. For example, a September 23rd, 2019, reupload by YouTube^[5] user Blaziken. :d received over 396,100 views in four months. On December 7th, 2019, YouTuber^[6] HiitsAris posted a Source Filmmaker remake of the video (shown below). The remake received over 331,200 views in one month.

On December 8th, 2019, Facebook^[7] user Carson MacIntosh posted the first known derivative of the format to TF2 Shitposting Facebook group, with Demoman and Medic having an exchange about Hazbin Hotel. December 19th, 2019, Twitter^[8] user @SumBod3 reuploaded the meme, with the reupload accumulating over 15,700 views in one month (shown below).

gn pic.twitter.com/VQZcxkmMUz

— gamger (@SumBod3) December 19, 2019

On December 19th, 2019, @little_paisiano^[9] posted another Hey Medic dub about Super Smash Bros. Melee. The video accumulated over 45,800 views in one month, while @little_paisiano^[10][11] posted more dubs in the following days.

The long awaited sequel to “more like kpoop” pic.twitter.com/eynLzAHvdK

— Saltine (@little_paisano) December 19, 2019

Starting in mid-December 2019, the format gained further spread on Twitter and Reddit, with both image memes and dubbed videos, including wholesome examples, being posted by users on both platforms. A number of YouTube compilations of the memes were also uploaded during that period.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References